Flash Fiction

An Enid Blyton Tribute in Under 1,000 Words

'I say, Ally,' said Coral, looking at a pretty girl with golden curls. 'She looks frightfully vain and spoilt. I hope she won't be in Dorset House with us!'

'She looks like fun, though,' said Ally, seeing a girl with short hair and freckles. 'Mischievous, but a good sport. Oh, she's coming over here.'

'Hello,' said the short-haired girl, with a boyish grin. 'I'm Tony.'

'What a queer name for a girl,' said Coral.

'Well,' said Tony, 'my real name is Antoinette, but I hate it. Oh, here's Prissy.'

'Hello,' said the golden-haired girl. 'We've got three cars.'

'Snob,' said Coral, turning her back to Prissy. 'What about the other new girl? Do you know her name?'

'She's called Lily,' said Tony.

'Funny looking girl,' said Ally, staring in astonishment at Lily's body piercings and dyed black hair. 'She'd better not give us any cheek, or she'll be sat on!'

All three new girls were in Dorset House, and shared Coral and Ally's dormitory. On the first evening, they unpacked their trunks and arranged their things. Prissy had brought a china doll and photographs in expensive frames. Tony had a box of marvellous tricks to play on the mistresses. Lily had a collection of crystals and a pink fruit.

'What is that?' asked Prissy, pointing.

'A dragon fruit,' said Lily.

'You should put it in your tuck box,' said Coral.

'It's not tuck,' said Lily. 'I just like to look at it.'

Coral was most puzzled, and whispered to Ally, 'Isn't she queer? Not a bit gay, like Tony.'

'Never mind,' said Ally. 'Let's go for a walk before supper. Coming, Tony?'

'Rather!' said Tony.

'All right,' said Prissy.

'Oh,' said Coral, annoyed that beastly Prissy had invited herself.

'I'll come,' said Lily, so Ally and Coral led the three new girls to the garden.

'How delightfully macabre,' said Lily, walking among the last September flowers. 'Death comes to us all.'

'Hey, you girl!' a man called. He looked cross, but there was a jolly twinkle in his eye. 'Get off them flower beds, oo-ar!'

'Gosh, sorry,' said Lily, jumping onto the footpath. 'I was thinking so hard, I didn't notice.'

'Common little man!' said Prissy.

'Oh, that's just Old Dicky,' said Ally. 'Come on. There's the supper bell.'

2: A Queer Thing

'Smashing meal!' said Tony, filling her mouth with spotted dick, then washing it down with lashings of ginger beer.

'That's because it's the first day of term,' said Ally. 'Don't get used to it!'

'We'll share tuck at tea tomorrow,' said Coral. 'Lily can keep her old dragon fruit! I say, where's she gone? Well, never mind. Let's go down to the tuck boxes and see what cakes and things we've got.'

Coral, Ally and Tony went to the tuck box room. They met Prissy on the way.

'Ghastly supper,' she said. 'I had to go and be ill.'

'Sorry you're too good for our horrid school,' said Coral.

They pushed past Prissy, but Prissy followed them. When Ally opened the door to the tuck box room, she screamed. Coral and Prissy screamed too, but Tony went to examine Old Dicky's body and felt for a pulse, just like a boy.

'Golly,' she said. 'He's dead!'

'Goodness!' said Prissy. 'Who would kill Old Dicky? I know he's only working class, but it's still rather mean.'

'It must have been Lily!' said Coral. 'She has a spite against Old Dicky, because he told her not to walk on the flower bed.'

'And she's obsessed with death,' said Ally. 'We'll send her to Coventry, the beast.'

'Never mind,' said Tony. 'Let's play a trick to cheer ourselves up. Who shall we play it on?'

'Ma'mzelle!' said Coral and Ally together.

3: Ma'mzelle and the Dragon Fruit

In the dormitory that night, Lily took out a sharp knife.

'Murder weapon!' whispered Prissy.

'What are you doing?' asked Tony, forgetting to send Lily to Conventry, she was being so queer.

'I'm looking inside my dragon fruit,' said Lily. 'I like doing that.'

'I say!' said Tony. 'You could trick someone into thinking that was vanilla ice cream, couldn't you? All white, with those black specks!'

'It's vanilla ice cream for lunch tomorrow,' said Ally.

'Lily,' said Tony. 'Would you be decent and let me have half your dragon fruit?'

'All right,' said Lily, and gave it to her.

At lunch the next day, Tony waited for Ma'mzelle to look away from her ice cream, then swapped it for a bowl of white, seedy dragon fruit flesh.

'Mon dieu!' said Ma'mzelle, crunching down on the hard dragon fruit seeds. 'La glace, she tastes most unusual!'

How the girls laughed as Ma'mzelle, making a most extraordinary face, swallowed a mouthful of dragon fruit whole.

That afternoon, the girls' French lesson was disrupted when Ma'mzelle had to go and be ill.